A Nightmare No More
by kuushina
Summary: A NaruSaku fanfic - what if Naruto had died?


My eyes fluttered open at the soft call of my name. My breath caught in my throat, my heart beating faster, thumping harder, in my chest. My hand flew to my mouth in an attempt to calm myself down. My eyes scanned the room in the dark, looking for him to be there. Somehow I was hoping that he would appear in my room. I yearned to see his face again. My breathing began to slow, turning into tiny sighs.

"Sakura-chan," his voice whispered. I swallowed the sobs that almost rippled through me. I averted my eyes to the photo of our beloved Team 7 on my nightstand. My eyes went, first, to the boy dressed in blue, with black hair and pale skin. Slowly, I felt my heart begin to tear as my eyes moves to the blond-haired boy with his goofy orange-colored clothes. All the sadness, the anger, the love, the hate, and the loneliness welled up inside my chest, my arms, my eyes, my mouth, my head.

"Naruto?" my voice quivered as I breathed his name.

Ever since Naruto died, I'd been having nightmares about him. They weren't quite nightmares, because he was never in pain when I saw him in my dreams. He was always smiling at me, calling my name the soft way he did. They were nightmares because I always woke up with the most excruciating pain within the hole my heart was left with. Naruto had been dead for two years now, the war being brought to an end through his death.

Tsunade-sama could not keep her promise.

Neither could Gaara-kun.

Neither could Hinata.

Neither could I.

We all failed to protect Naruto, the one person who we were trying so hard to protect. But we simply couldn't, in the end.

With Sasuke-kun, I was too late in telling him that I loved him. He had left all of us here in Konoha, anyway. He did not think about how we, his teammates, might've felt after he left. All he wanted was his revenge. No one could understand that, except perhaps Naruto. Those two were like brothers, even though the "love" they showed towards one another did not make sense to other people.

But, unlike with Sasuke-kun, I still felt Naruto right beside me.

I could not see him. I could not touch him. I could not grab him by his collar and yell at him for leaving me. I could not be angry – I could not let out any of these feelings that I bottled up since his death.

Simply because, he had not abandoned me.

I was also too late, in telling Naruto how I felt. I was baffled, for a while, trying to figure out how to understand my feelings for Sasuke-kun. Naruto, though, started becoming someone I respected so much. He became someone I fought alongside, someone who knew my strengths and weaknesses, and still chose to stand by me to fight.

He had come to be someone I cared about deeply.

My heart had calmed at this point, beating steadily. I closed my eyes, trying to picture his face, his beautiful, smiling face. I replayed all the memories I had of him – from when Team 7 first formed – to the very end, to the very last time I saw him. His eyes were always so filled with determination. He was always seeking acknowledgment from everyone. Say, Naruto, did you know – we acknowledged you long ago.

I curled up into a ball, as I sat up in my bed. I started to feel the sobs in my throat, again. Tears filled my eyes, though they were closed, and I was forced to open them, to allow the tears to flow.

No one knows how affected I was, and still am. No one sees that side of me. No one ever gets to. Surely, I was not the only one suffering. Tsunade-sama, Gaara-kun, Hinata, Kiba-kun, Lee-san, Chouji-kun – everyone was suffering, too.

"Sakura-chan," I heard him call my name again. I slowly lifted my head, and closed my eyes. I did not answer. I did not try to reach out. I could not touch him. I could not feel him. As I slowly allowed my eyelids to flitter open, I saw his throat in front of my eyes, in his black and orange jumpsuit.

"Sakura-chan," he whispered my name again, as he touched his lips to my forehead. His hands softly brushed my cheeks, his thumbs lightly stroking my eyebags. His kisses lingered, and when they began to fade, he kissed my forehead again.

I could smell him.

I could feel his touch.

I could hear his voice.

I could feel his soul.

Tears began to wet my cheeks, and suppressed cries left my lips as I tried to break away from his hold. I tried to push him away, with my hands against his chest. I kept calling his name to let me go, his hands resting on my shoulders as he continued to kiss my forehead. I called his name to let me go, I begged him.

I could not let the figments of my mind play with me anymore.

"Naruto… why are you kissing my forehead? Please stop. You're not real. Please let me go. Please, Naruto," I sobbed.

He stopped kissing my forehead, but I could feel his breath there. His grip on my shoulders loosened. I could hear him sigh. I thought he would finally disappear, and I'd stop having these nightmares. Instead, I felt his forehead press against mine. His hands moved back up to my face again, this time, his thumbs wiping away the tears from my face.

"I'm kissing your forehead… because I never got to when I was still here."

I felt the pieces of my heart shatter into further smaller pieces, the shards becoming sharper and sharper. My whole body erupted into shudders. The sobs would not stop – I kept shaking. My fingers tightened around his clothes, as I buried my face in them, crying, shouting, screaming into them.

His arms enveloped me, his lips touching my forehead every once in a while, his warmth radiating throughout my body. His hands soothed my back as I cried, as I hiccupped into him.

"Naruto," I kept calling his name, clinging onto him tighter than I'd cling onto anyone. All my walls came tumbling down, and all my inhibitions disappeared.

"Naruto," I whispered.

"Yes, Sakura-chan, I'm right here," he'd answer.

I did not stop calling his name until my sobbing subsided. I nuzzled my face into his chest, my heart beating steadily, slowly. I took in his scent, his warmth – everything about him, and tried to commit it to memory.

"Naru –" I began to call his name.

His finger lifted my face so that it was near his, his thumb stroking my bottom lip. He drew his face closer, his forehead pressing against mine again. His breath quickened, and I could hear him gulp. His sky blue eyes stared into mine, and my heart thundered in my chest. He moved in closer, and his mouth opened slightly. I

began to close my eyes, and waited. Nothing came. I slowly opened my eyes again, and saw that his eyes were closed. His eyebrows were scrunched, indicating that he was nervous. I let a small smile spread across my lips, and I moved forward. I touched my lips to his, and felt him jolt. When I felt his hands on both sides of my face, I pressed my lips tighter, against his.

My mind disappeared while we sat there, touching each other, feeling each other, hearing each other – tasting each other. His fingers brushed through my hair, my hands around his waist. I let out quiet sighs, and I felt his lips break into a smile when I did.

"I love you," I whispered against his lips. He froze.

"I love you. I am sorry I never got to tell you, I'm sorry I never noticed how you felt sooner. I am sorry for everything. I never meant to hurt you, I never meant for you to die the way you did – I'm so sorry I wasn't able to protect –" He pressed his lips harder against mine before pulling away just a tad.

"Don't apologize for not realizing it sooner. Don't apologize for not being able to protect me – I was protecting all of you. There is no need to apologize," he muttered. His hand stroked the back of my neck, and I felt goose bumps.

"If you're not regretting it… can I ask why you hang around?"

He looked at me gravely, his eyes so full of loneliness, sadness – the kind I saw when he was a child, before knowing he was a Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails.

"Because you need me right now," he answered simply.

I stared at him, but soon was unable to, as I felt embarrassment fill my cheeks. Naruto had done all he could to see me, and I was asking why he was sticking around. What an awful person.

"And, because, I need you right now," he said softly. I touched his face with the tip of my fingers, and kissed him lightly. I wrapped my arms around him tighter, and held him as all my sadness dissolved into nothingness. I felt him kiss the top of my head, and he sighed as he held me.

"I love you, too, Sakura-chan." He said finally, as he chuckled.

My face burnt up and my body suddenly felt like it was burning. I shuddered a little, at how easily he said the words back. I felt his arms tighten, and I heard him sigh softly. I could hear a smile in the way he said my name.

"I-Idiot…" I muttered.

"I want you to have something," he said, ignoring my comment. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out something I could not quite see in the dark. He brought it closer to my face, and my heart almost stopped in my chest.

"Your forehead protector?!"

"I want you to keep it," he smiled.

"Why?! That's your most prized possession!"

"Sakura-chan, I no longer need it."

At that, I fell silent.

"Why do you want me to keep it?" I said softly, already feeling the sadness building up again.

"So that I know the two most important things to me are together, and safe," he replied with a smile. I don't think my face could've been any redder. I buried my face in his chest and sighed.

"Naruto…" I began to say, my heart overflowing with affection.

"I know, Sakura-chan. I know. I love you, too."

We held each other through the rest of the night, keeping each other warm. There were many things in my life that I did regret. That, after all, was a part of being human. I started out as a person who knew no pain, no loss, no isolation. I did not understand the pain both Sasuke-kun and Naruto had to go through, without their families. I did not know the loneliness that came along with it. The fact that I know both of them, and loved both of them, resonated deeply with my soul, as they both taught me to be gentler, but at the same time, to be stronger. When Sasuke-kun left Konoha, Naruto was all I had left. I don't think I noticed the love I felt for him in the beginning, but as time stretched and as we stayed by each other's side for as long as we could, I grew to acknowledge him as someone that I loved and cherished. Someone who was absolutely irreplaceable.

When my eyes opened that morning, I was wrapped in blankets, toasty warm. Next to me, of course, would be no one. What was left there, was a dark gray forehead protector, folded nicely, facing up, the Konoha symbol engraved deeply, proudly. There was a note next to it.

"Stay strong for me, Sakura-chan," it read.

And strong I would stay.


End file.
